It is certainly an interesting question. Tevi Troy answers a part of the question in a National Affairs article titled "No More Thinking With Think Tanks." Writes Troy:

Because think tanks are understood to offer important support to making
good public policy, they are included among the charitable and
public-service institutions exempted from income tax.

The question about tax-exempt institutions and their activities/influence goes back decades.

There are sometimes calls for changes to be made. In 2009, J.H. Snider called for a strengthening of think tank accountability, and said, among other things, that IRS Form 990 (which think tanks must file with the IRS each year to retain their tax-exempt status) should require think tanks to disclose their donors. This is not a new idea.

In 2003 then Cato President Ed Crane said that too many think tanks are taking openly partisan political stances that undermine their credibility and threaten the tax-exempt status of 501(c)3 policy research groups over the long-term.

Brookings Nonresident Senior Fellow Justin Wolfers, just released a paper with his co-author wife, Betsey Stevenson, which basically says that you can't be too rich.

Here is how The Wall Street Journal reports it:

The Duchess of Windsor, who quipped, “You can never be too rich or too thin,” appears to have had it at least half right. New research by University of Michigan economistsBetsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers found that for rich and poor alike, as income climbs, so does one’s sense of well-being.

Their findings, to be published in the May 2013 American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings,
counter the idea that once certain basic needs are met, a rising income
doesn’t translate into commensurate surges in happiness. That 1970s-era
notion, named for economist Richard Easterlin and
known as the Easterlin Paradox, holds that higher average income doesn’t
translate into greater average happiness. Stevenson and Wolfers noted
that other researchers — but not Mr. Easterlin — tweaked the paradox to
say that it holds after a certain threshold income level — to take care
of one’s basic needs — is met.

That belief worked its way into popular thought, said Mr. Wolfers, a
Brookings Nonresident Senior Fellow, but it hadn’t really been formally
tested and proved. He and Ms. Stevenson examined data for more than 150
countries from sources including the World Bank and the Gallup World
Poll and concluded that there no such threshold income level, or
“satiation point,” exists.

They found that “while each additional dollar of income yields a
greater increment to measured happiness for the poor than for the rich,
there is no satiation point.” That means that additional income makes
both poor and rich people happier — it just will take more money to
increase the well-being of the rich.

You can read the full report, titled "Subjective Well-Being and Income: Is There Any Evidence of Satiation?" here.

Here is what Slate says about the new study. Here is what the Washington Post says. Here Bloomberg Businessweek says. Here is what US News & World Report says.

Taiwan's National Security Bureau (NSB) has released a report which
states China's cyberarmy has grown and shifted to targets its think
tanks and critical infrastructure.

According to The Taipei Times
on Sunday, the report to be presented at a legislative hearing with the
Ministry of National Defense and Criminal Investigation Bureau
officials on Monday, states that since 2002, China had expanded its
cyberarmy and now has more than 100,000 people working for it.

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch post of cyber hacking at think tanks in the US.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Bruegel Director Jean Pisani-Ferry has resigned to become Director of the French Prime Minister's Economic Policy Planning Staff in Paris.

In a statement, Bruegel's Board said it is currently engaged in the process of selecting a new Director. In the meantime, Deputy Director Guntram Wolff has been appointed Acting Director.

Jean-Claude Trichet, former President of the European Central Bank (ECB), is the Chairman of the Board at Bruegel. Jim O'Neill, Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM), is another notable member of Bruegel's Board.

Bruegel was recently ranked as the 2nd best non-US think tank in the world by the annual University of Pennsylvania think tank rankings. [Chatham House was ranked #1.] It was ranked as the 8th best think tank in the world. It was also ranked as the #1 think tank in Western Europe [interestingly, Chatham House was ranked #2], and the world's #1 international economic policy think tank.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's term ends January 31, 2014, and there has been lots of speculation about who may be the next Chairman. Those from think tank land who could possibly become the next Fed Chairman (and the probability that they will become the next Chairman) include:

Larry Summers: Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, or CAP, and a Member of the Board of Directors at the Peterson Institute of International Economics, or PIIE (17% probability based on WPost prediction)

Tim Geithner: Distinguished Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, or CFR (8% probability based on WPost prediction)

BPC will participate in the festivities by hosting a VIP “After Party” in partnership with Capitol File Magazine
at the Carnegie Library. In celebration of bipartisanship, BPC will
have its very own Bipartisan Lounge featuring a purple velvet rope,
lively elephant and donkey décor, and “Bipartisan Spirits” of all kinds.

Leading up to the White House Correspondents Dinner, BPC and Capitol
File will be co-hosting an intimate dinner featuring a discussion on
“The Intersection of Hollywood and Washington” at SideCar at P.J. Clarke’s. Moderated by Atlantic Media Editorial Director Ron Brownstein with an introduction by BPC President Jason Grumet, the panel will feature ONE CEO Michael Elliott, House of Cards Executive Producer Beau Willimon, Chasing the Hill Executive Producer Brent Roske, and Heard on the Hill Entertainment Columnist Neda Semnani.
The conversation will take a closer look at the effectiveness of
political posturing by artists and athletes and their effect (if any) on
public policy. How can talent use their voices to inform and involve
the public along with entertaining them—and should they? And, how has
politics been portrayed in film and TV, and what effect has that had on
the public perception of policy initiatives?

Foreign Affairs, the magazine published by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), will also be holding an event on Thursday (April 25).

Harvard economist Jeffrey Liebman unveils paper on evidence-based funding decisions in government at The Hamilton Project, calling for major increase in gov't efforts to improve value of its spending programs.

Following is a Think Tank Watch interview with The Panel Crasher, the anonymous blogger who is documenting his quest to get free food at events around Washington, DC, including think tank events.

**********

Q: With 394 think tanks (and thousands of other groups/associations) in Washington, DC,
do you have a particular strategy in terms of which event to crash
next?

A: The
only real strategy I have is to mix it up and to try to go to panels at
obvious meal times. I try to avoid anything at like 11am or 3pm,
because that usually just means cookies. When I look at what's going on
at the good time slots, I eliminate places where I know people. Then I
try to predict which panel will be the most interesting or potentially
hilarious. Sometimes I'll look up the panelists in advance for instance.
I've also started to think that small more politically extreme groups
(like the Family Research Council) will be less likely to have rigorous check-in procedures
and be more focused on meeting their head count. They'll also probably
be the most absurd.

Q: Would you return to a think tank you've already been to or are you more interested in quantity of think tanks to crash?

A: I'm
primarily interested in getting free food with minimal hassle, hearing
an interesting or silly discussion, making Bruce Willis jokes online,
and making some people laugh. Second to that, I have found it
pretty interesting to explore new spots like the FRC or Hudson Institute
where I hadn't been before. As I look to the weeks ahead to register
for upcoming events, I really am amazed by how many think tanks,
foundations, associations, councils, groups, institutes, and centers
there really are in this town. As best I can, I'm going to try and hit
as many new places as possible, but I'm not against returning places if
the spread looks good and the panel looks funny.

Q: Any think tank you are now dying to crash?

A: People
have tweeted at me about the Peterson Institute, Cato, and Heritage.
I'm interested in hitting all of those, especially Cato. They had great
events on the Hill. Some of their staff have also tweeted me, so I feel
like I'm less likely to get any hassle. They're libertarians after all.

Q: What goes through your mind as you are about to crash a think tank? Do you get an adrenaline rush?

A: Adrenaline
rush is a bit strong. I'm going to eat sandwiches with a couple old
boys in suites and listen to people talk about tax policy after all. I'm
not stepping in to the Octagon.Since
I got called out at AEI though, I have started to get a bit nervous
when I first go in and try to take pictures of the interns and food. I've
been a bit less ballsy than I was during the first two crashes.

Q: Outside of panel-crashing, what is a typical day of eating like for
you?

A: Since
I've been unemployed I try and skip breakfast and wait for a lunch
panel for my first meal. Then I either try and find a dinner reception
or hope my girlfriend wants to cook for me. When I can't mooch off her
or the panel scene, I cook myself frozen chicken and vegetables from
Safeway. Cheap, easy, and healthy. I legitimately cook only that meal
for myself.

One thing I'm looking forward to is an upcoming dinner with Anthony, who writes the Dining With Strangers blog (www.diningwithstrangers.com).
It's a pretty interesting blog concept where he seeks out
weird/interesting people he's never met, takes them to dinner,
interviews them and takes their picture, and then writes a little
interview/restaurant review. He liked my blog, we flirted a bit on
Twitter, and now we're having dinner. It's really a classic tale of
hetero boy meets hetero boy on the internet, hetero boys go on a date,
then hetero boys blog about each other and probably never speak again. A
tale as old as time.

Q: Do your parents, relatives or others close to you know about your adventures?

A: My
parents, brothers, friends, and old colleagues are all aware. My
friends and former colleagues were originally my intended and only
expected audience, and they've really enjoyed the blog. I spread the
word via my DC friends and network, so a fair amount of people
are enjoying being in on the secret while respecting my anonymity.My
parents are foreign, and are parents, so they understand not a single
one of the pop culture references on the blog. Some of the media
attention has made it seem a bit more legit, but lets just say they're
"concerned."

Q: Instead of going to grad school, have you considered becoming a full-time event crasher/blogger.

A: Crasher? No. Fat, caffeinated and stupid is no way to go through life. Blogger? Maybe. If I thought I could make a living making boner jokes on the Internet I would have done it a long time ago.

Q: You've commented on how boring most think tank talks are. Any suggestions to make them less boring?

Q: Yes. Provide barrels of rotten vegetables for people to throw at panelists when they go on too long or say something you disagree with, like in old movies. That would be awesome.Also,
stop bringing in one token dissenting voice amongst four just so you
can preach to the choir under the veil of "balance." Stop discussing
issues that no one in the world would ever disagree with. Make it more
like a town hall or debate format with more back and forth between
panelists and audience members. And no PowerPoint allowed.

Q: Would you consider working for a think tank in the future? If so, which one(s).

A: Consider, sure. Is that a plan or ambition? Certainly not.

Q: If you could start your own think tank, what would it be?

A: The Association for the Study of Sandwich Structures. There's
been a bit of a lull in sandwich innovation since the wrap came on the
scene. I think a research association could really shake things up, and
all think tanks would benefit.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

The think tank United States Institute of Peace (USIP) is asking the DC government to move Constitution Avenue, a major street in Washington, DC. USIP's address is 2301 Constitution Ave., NW. Here is a map that you can zoom in on so you can get a better idea of the exact location being discussed.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

ECSSR has ranked what it considers to be the most important research and strategic studies centers in the Arab world. Here are the rankings:

Carnegie Middle East Center (Lebanon)

Brookings Doha Center (Qatar)

Bahrain Center for Strategic, International and Energy Studies (Bahrain)

Center for Strategic and Future Studies (Kuwait)

Middle East Studies Center (Jordan)

Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies (Egypt)

Center for Arab Unity Studies (Lebanon)

Dubai School of Government (UAE)

King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (Saudi Arabia)

The Moroccan Interdisciplinary Center for Strategic and International Studies (Morocco)

ECSSR has also ranked the top most important international research and strategic studies centers in non-Arab countries. Here are the top 10:

Brookings Institution (US)

Royal Institute of International Affairs, or Chatham House (UK)

Center for Strategic and International Studies (US)

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (US)

Council on Foreign Relations (US)

International Institute for Strategic Studies (UK)

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sweden)

German Institute for International and Security Affairs (Germany)

RAND Corporation (US)

Jeju Peace Institute (South Korea)

The University of Pennsylvania recently released its own annual rankings of the world's think tanks. In that ranking, the Carnegie Middle East Center was also ranked as the #1 think tank in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). In that ranking, ECSSR was ranked as the 19th best think tank in the Middle East and North Africa.

A new petition has been circulating around Change.org, calling for think tanks to release their sources of funding before being allowed airtime on British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the British public service broadcasting corporation.

Every week Think Tank organisations such as The Tax Payers' Alliance,
The Adam Smith Institute, The Centre for Policy Studies, The Policy
Exchange and Civitas are granted national airtime on key BBC programmes
to air their views on the current affairs of the day. These
organisations do not simply just appear, they are paid for and funded by
powerful individuals and organisations promoting their own financial
and political interests. Often, as in the case of The Tax Payers'
Alliance, they are happy to perpetuate an impression that they are grass
roots organisations simply representing the tax-paying population of
the UK. This is not the case. Think Tanks - both on the left and
right - should have the right to exist but in the name of transparency
they should be obliged to state whose interests they exist to promote
before being allowed airtime on the BBC. Only then can we the public
make a judgement as to the veracity of their argument.

Genachowski follows several previous FCC chairmen in his move to the
Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan research group dedicated to "fostering
enlightened leadership, the appreciation of timeless ideas and values,
and open-minded dialogue on contemporary issues."

Here is what the Washington Post says about the Genachowski move. Adweek notes that Genachowski will follow in the footsteps of four other FCC Chairmen.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Former Members of Congress have been launching new think tanks left and right. The latest to do so is former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), the libertarian icon who today is announcing the launch of his new think tank, the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. Dr. Paul is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of the new think tank.

Here is more about today's launch, which will take place at the Capitol Hill Club:

Llewellyn Rockwell is the Founder and Chairman of the libertarian think tank Ludwig von Mises Institute (LvMI), located in Auburn, Alabama. Rockwell served as Ron Paul's Chief of Staff from 1978 to 1982.

Here is a media advisory from Paul's Facebook page, which starts off by saying that the "neoconservative era is dead." It adds that the Institute will focus on two issues most important to Dr. Paul, "education and coming generations." The advisory says that the Institute will fill the growing demand for information on foreign affairs from a non-interventionist perspective.

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch post on the explosion of libertarian think tanks.

As Think Tank Watch recently reported, former Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) just launched a new think tank in Washington, DC called the The Lugar Center (TLC).

The Heritage Foundation's new president, former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), recently formed a new conservative think tank in South Carolina called the Palmetto Policy Forum.

Last year, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) founded a foreign policy think tank called The McCain Institute for International Leadership.

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch post which lists various former and current Members of Congress who are affiliated with think tanks.

Is the think tank scene becoming too saturated? According to research by the University of Pennsylvania, between 2001-2007, there were an average of 69.4 think tank established per year. There are 6,603 think tanks in the world, including 1,919 in North America. The United States has 1,823 think tanks. Of the 1,823 US think tanks, 394 are located in Washington, DC.

How much free food can one man eat? That's the challenge faced by pseudonymous blogger Panel Crasher, who's been trying to eat as much as he can at Washington think-tank events since being laid off earlier this year.

The Panel Crasher, who wouldn't reveal his name in an interview with
City Desk, lost his job at a nonprofit, in part, he suspects, because of
sequestration. He's going to graduate school in the fall, but until
then he's trying to hit as many food spreads as he can—and blog about
Washington's panel subculture along the way.

His first attempt to score food, at a Family Research Council panel on birth rates,
ended in disaster when he showed up a few minutes late, only to find
everything but the condiments eaten. That inspired him to get to panels
early, but not too early, in case event staff started wondering why he was hanging around.

Getting the most from a crowded panel schedule means knowing which
think tanks will have the best food. The stingiest offerings, he says,
comes from the New America Foundation. "It'd be at noon or 12:30 and
they'd have a cookie for everyone," he says. "If that."

The best food so far has come from the right-leaning American
Enterprise Institute, which is hardly conservative when it comes to its
spreads. AEI staffers foiled his attempts to document the food, but it was worth it, since the think tank offers a full lunch buffet—even shrimp, the crasher points out.

The crasher says his blog has been popular with former colleagues
familiar with using panel events for networking. But that rising
popularity doesn't make the slog much easier—he's committed to staying
at each panel for the whole event, rather than just making off with the
food.

For anyone hoping to follow in his thrifty footsteps, the crasher has
some tips on making the most of think tank food: "liberal use of
napkins," using two plates, if you can handle it. "Don't be afraid to
get seconds," he says. "I mean, they're there."

"Former Hill staffer and K Street nonprofit associate. Future grad
student. Recently unemployed sequestration victim with lots of time,
little money, and an unhealthy knowledge of DC's think tanks, Hill
receptions, and speaker series.
They can kick me out of the club, but they cant stop me from crashing
their free events, eating their free food, totally ignoring their
discussions, and then anonymously making fun of them on the internet.
It's basically like Wedding Crashers, minus all the sex and
partying...OR IS IT???"

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch post on the best food experience at think tanks.

Washington is not new to event "crashers." Tareq and Michaele Salahi (now divorced), who crashed a White House State Dinner to honor India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, are probably the most memorable party crashers in recent memory.

What is the connection between top rapper Jay-Z, his wife, superstar singer Beyonce, and the Brookings Institution, the world's top think tank?

No, I was not thinking of the fact that their total assets are all well over $100 million. [According to the most recent publicly available documents, Brookings had total assets of around $410 million; Beyonce has a net worth of around $300 million; Jay-Z has a net worth of around $500 million.]

Here is a link to Academic Arrangements Abroad. Trips to Cuba for winter 2013 are still open!

But don't book your trip just yet. The conservative Heritage Foundation may not be too happy, particularly if you are a celebrity visiting Cuba. Here is what Mike Gonzalez, Vice President of Communications at The Heritage Foundation had to say about the trip:

We need a Dennis Rodman Rule, named after the exotic erstwhile
basketball star who went to Pyongyang to fete the dictator Kim Jong Eun
just weeks before the North Korean threatened to blow the world to
smithereens in a fit of pique. The rule should be: celebrities who
disregard the lives of millions by celebrating those who torment them
deserve only our contempt upon their return home.

In March, Heritage Foundation blasted Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) for "mischaracterizing"the think tank's stance on Cuba. Heritage says that it has long championed free trade but among nations, but has never advocated a unilateral lifting of sanctions on trade with Cuba. Says the think tank: "Heritage supports the process by which the removal of trade sanctions would be accompanied by a verifiable and irreversible opening toward democracy and respect for human and economic rights."

The libertarian Cato Institute says that the US embargo of Cuba is a failure.

Think Progress, the blogging arm of the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF), a "sister advocacy organization" of the liberal Center for American Progress (CAP), notes how Jay-Z mocked Republicans' fury over the Cuba trip with a new rap track. You can listen to the track here.

Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic minority
leader, has arranged for House Democrats on Thursday to hear a debate on
Mr. Obama’s proposed change in the cost-of-living formula that
determines Social Security benefits. The debate will pit the
A.F.L.-C.I.O. counsel, Damon Silvers, who opposes the change in the
formula, and Robert Greenstein, executive director of the liberal Center for Budget and Policy Priorities [sic], which has long supported changes to
entitlement programs as part of a bipartisan deal to protect other
federal spending on, for example, antipoverty programs, the nation’s
infrastructure and education.

It has been evident from his first months in office that the pragmatist
in Mr. Obama has made him sympathetic to the thinking of Mr. Greenstein
and others. In 2009, Mr. Obama considered proposing the change in the
cost-of-living formula for Social Security until Democratic
Congressional leaders objected.

[Editor's note: The New York Times reported the think tank's name incorrectly; it is actually Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, not Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.]

Here is more about that House Democratic Caucus meeting that The New York Times is referring to.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) was founded in 1981 by Robert Greenstein, who was the Administrator of the Food and Nutrition Service at the US Department of Agriculture under President Carter. He was also appointed by President Clinton to serve on the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform, and headed the federal budget policy component of the transition team for President Obama.

Vice President Joe Biden has called CBPP "invaluable" and a "go-to resource for consistently reliable analysis on matters of budget and fiscal policy at every level of government."

There are several former Obama Administration officials currently housed at CBPP, including:

Jared Bernstein, a Senior Fellow who was Chief Economist and Economic Adviser to Vice President Joe Biden.

Sharon Parrott, Vice President for Budget Policy and Economic Opportunity, who served as Counselor for Human Services Policy at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Richard Kogan, a Senior Fellow, who was a Senior Adviser at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Barbara Sard, Vice President for Housing Policy, who was Senior Advisor on Rental Assistance to Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan.

CBPP was recently ranked as the 23rd best think tank in the US by the University of Pennsylvania annual think tank rankings. It was also ranked as the 21st best domestic economic policy think tank in the world. CBPP was also ranked as the 15th best social policy think tank in the world.

Friday, April 12, 2013

Rumor has it that President Barack Obama will be choosing Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker, Hyatt Hotel heiress, to be the next Secretary of Commerce. Her net worth is around $1.85 billion, according to Forbes.

Ms. Pritzker is on the Board of Directors at the Council on Foreign Relations. Here is the full list of CFR Board Officers and Directors. Pritzker is also on the Advisory Board of The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution.

Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Obama's pick to be the next Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is also on CFR Board of Directors. She had a Senate confirmation hearing this week.

If confirmed, Burwell would be only the second women to hold that position, after Alice Rivlin, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.

If confirmed, both Pritzker and Burwell will enter an exclusive club - the Presidential Cabinet. Here is a full list of current Cabinet members in the Obama Administration. [OMB Director has the status of Cabinet-rank.]

CFR was recently ranked as the 6th best think tank in the world by the annual University of Pennsylvania think tank rankings. It was also ranked as the 3rd best think tank in the US (only behind Brookings and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) and the 4th best security and international affairs think tank in the world.

In other think tank personnel news, David Sandalow, Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs at the Energy Department, is leaving to be the Inaugural Fellow at Columbia University's new Center on Global Energy Policy. Sandalow was a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution from 2004 - 2009.

The center will employ full-time policy experts to
formulate proposals and communicate them to policymakers both in the executive
branch and on Capitol Hill. The center will also place fellows and interns in congressional
offices to help push Lugar's work forward.

In January 2013, Lugar was appointed as Counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

In December 2012, it was reported that Lugar would join the German Marshall Fund (GMF).

Here is a Think Tank Watch post from May 2012 speculating about Lugar's think tank land options.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

The Washington Post just interviewed Anne-Marie Slaughter, the incoming President of the New America Foundation (NAF). Here are some excerpts:

The New America Foundation was founded in 1999 with an ambition
to invest in “new thinkers and new ideas” and tackle the next
generation of challenges facing the United States. Which new ideas will
you be focusing on?

I’m not taking the job because I want to pursue specific ideas of
my own. I am going to be spending six months figuring out what we
should be doing.

We already have lots of programs, on fiscal
policy, foreign policy, education and technology — including the Open
Technology Institute, which has the best group of technologists in
Washington. They actually write code, working on developing products
that help dissident or opposition groups in very repressive states
communicate with each other and with the outside world. In national
security, we have drafted a grand strategy of leading a transition to a
sustainable world. We also have a program on work and family, and I plan
to build it up.

But if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s lead from the center, not from the front.

There’s been a huge increase in the number of think tanks over
the past 50 years, and many are becoming more active as advocacy
organizations. How do you plan to distinguish New America from, say,
Heritage on the right and Brookings on the left?

This is one of the things that attracted me to this job. We
really are nonpartisan. We look for big ideas that meet big challenges,
and we don’t care which side of the political aisle they come from. We
are not a think tank that has a whole lot of institutes and centers and
legacy programs that you have to fund. We aim to be much more nimble, on
the Silicon Valley model. We are an incubator of ideas; we nurture them
and then spin off a program or more direct policy work.

Take the
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget run by Maya MacGuineas. It
grew in size and influence while housed at the foundation for the past
10 years and was recently spun off as an independent organization. Or
the ideas fostered through our 20 senior fellows, like Gregory
Rodriguez. He went on to found Zocalo in L.A., a public space for civic
community that explores what it means to be a citizen. It’s a separate
organization. We’ve come back to partner with it, but it’s no longer
ours.

Think tanks have been called “universities without students.” Will you miss academic life?

The thing I will miss the most are the students. But a large
part of teaching is mentoring young people, and I will continue to do
that in Washington. The staff of New America is very young.

But my life has evolved away from academia. Princeton doesn’t
have a law school, and I’m not comfortable in the contemporary political
science space. So I felt it was time to move to a different way of
connecting ideas to policy. Our fellows program means we can identify
academics who have important ideas that need to be injected into the
policy space.

We first met more than 20 years ago, and you’ve always pushed
yourself hard. But you don’t have to do it all, right? There’s a lot of
choice in this.

How could I start this conversation and not continue it? I accept
probably one in five of the invitations that have poured in — from
government organizations, corporations, women’s groups, as well as a
whole set of global invitations.

New America is one of the few
places that will let me combine my own work on foreign policy and social
policy while empowering talented individuals to generate ideas and
policies to actually make change.

At New America, I will probably
be traveling less. I plan to be in D.C. a couple of days a week. I will
also be in New York — that’s a day trip for me — where New America has
an event space. And I’ll be working from home one day a week.

The
thing that is most important is to make my own schedule, to be my own
boss, so that if my kids have activities or if I need to go off to see
colleges, I can do that. I think it’s going to be a much more
predictable life.

My kids are quite excited. They say, “It’s beast.”

Ms. Slaughter will become President of NAF effective September 1, 2013. In the meantime, Rachel White, Executive Vice President and Director of External Relations, will serve as NAF's Interim President.

This month President Obama nominated Brian Deese, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council (NEC), for the post of Deputy Director at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Deese has had numerous positions in Washington think tanks, including:

Center for American Progress (CAP): 2002-2005

Center for Global Development (CGD): 2001-2002

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP): 2000-2001

Government Executive called Deese, 35, a "veteran of progressive think tanks."

Think tanks are perfect breeding grounds for landing a top OMB spot. Peter Orszag, a former Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is an
Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He is
also a Member of the Board of the Peterson Institute of International
Economics (PIIE). Orszag was a Brookings Senior Fellow from 2001 to 2007. He was also the first Director of The Hamilton Project at Brookings.

Former Prime Minister Taro Aso, who is currently the Finance Minister, will be giving a major economic speech on April 19 at CSIS on "Abenomics."

On February 22, 2013 CSIS hosted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who was in Washington, DC to meet with President Obama.

Mr. Aso is no stranger to CSIS. In 2006, CSIS hosted Mr. Aso when he was Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The April visit comes as the yen fell today to its lowest level against the dollar in nearly four years as the Bank of Japan begins an aggressive program of monetary easing.

CSIS was recently ranked as the best think tank in the world for security and international affairs by the University of Pennsylvania annual think tank rankings. It was also ranked as the 5th best think tank in the world.

Friday, April 5, 2013

Arturo Sarukhan, former Mexican Ambassador to the US, has joined the Brookings Institution as a Distinguished Affiliate. According to Brookings, he will affiliate with the Foreign Policy and Metropolitcan Policy programs.

Amb. Sarukhan served as Ambassador to the US from 2007 to January 2013.

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch Post on foreign influence at US think tanks. Sarukhan will join other former foreign ambassadors at Brookings, including Jean-David Levitte (former French Ambassador to the US), and Itamar Rabinovich (former Israeli Ambassador to the US).

Andres Rozental, former Deputy Foreign Minister of Mexico, and former Mexican Ambassador to the UK, is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at Brookings.

Carlos Pascual, the former US Ambassador to Mexico, used to be the Vice President and Director of the Foreign Policy Studies Program at Brookings.

Brookings will be hosting an event April 11 on the upcoming Obama-Peña Nieto meeting, and Amb. Sarukhan will be giving introductory remarks.

Brookings was recently ranked as the best think tank in the world by the annual University of Pennsylvania think tank rankings.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Males dominate the top of the think tank food chain. Of the top 50 US think tanks as ranked by the University of Pennsylvania, 42 (or 84%) are run by men, according to Foreign Policy. In other words, only eight (or 16%) are run by women.

Today is my first full day as president of The Heritage Foundation,
and the first thing I want to do is thank my predecessor Ed Feulner for
the institution he has built over the past 36 years. The second thing I
will do is tell you that we will not change the boundless optimism and
pride in our country you’ve come to expect from Heritage—or our
commitment to make sure America remains a beacon of freedom to the
world.

Heritage has always believed the values that made America
great—honesty, industriousness, courage, determination—should inform our
policies and our public institutions. We must never forget the ideas
and principles that made America the strongest and most prosperous
nation in history.

Our principles will stay the same, but we will constantly need
innovative policy ideas to address our nation’s new problems. Heritage’s
experts and researchers are busy every day working out solutions to our
myriad national challenges. We don’t need new principles. Our
values have stood the test of time. It’s important that we draw this
distinction between timeless values that have been with us for centuries
and new policies that we will need in the 21st Century.

I’ve been traveling across our country since being selected to
succeed Ed, and I can report that our country shows what works and
doesn’t. After 50 years of liberal policies, Detroit is bankrupt,
culturally as well as financially. There are more than 400 liquor stores
in Detroit, but not one chain supermarket. And states like California
that have been controlled by liberals for decades might soon go the way
of the Motor City.

But conservative principles are working while liberal schemes are
failing. In Louisiana, they’re getting their schools to work by giving
parents the freedom to choose. In Michigan, they have found freedom to
work.

Despite facing long odds, Americans aren’t giving up.

In South Carolina last week, the Heritage team met Lisa Stevens. She
had served in the State Board of Education and was told that there was
nothing that could be done to fix some middle schools in that state.
Lisa didn’t give up—and she fought regulators until she and a bunch of
parents opened Langston Charter School, which now has 1,500 students
competing for 450 places.

We also met Willard Galvez. When he lost his job in 2010, he and his
wife decided they didn’t want to rely on others to support them and
their four children, so they started their own business.

Liberal policies have destroyed families and communities and created
dependence on government. Putting our society back together will require
work.

Take Obamacare. Our government has been making promises it cannot
keep. Medicare and Medicaid are already on an unsustainable path,
leaving health care for seniors and the poor at risk.

Obamacare’s promises fuel our fiscal challenges, but that’s not the
worst thing they do. They make millions of Americans dependent on the
government for their health care. By 2021, nearly half of all health
care spending will be controlled by the government. To protect the
country from this tipping point, Congress must stop the new spending on
expanding Medicaid and subsidizing coverage through Obamacare.

Dependency is a scourge eating away at our national fiber and
undermining the values that made us a shining city to the rest of the
world.

Today, more people than ever before—69.5 million Americans, from
college students to retirees to welfare beneficiaries—depend on the
federal government for housing, food, income, student aid, or other
assistance once considered to be the responsibility of individuals,
families, neighborhoods, churches, and other civil society institutions.
The United States must reverse the direction of these trends or face
economic and social collapse.

And the most important social tool to fight dependence on government,
the family, is also under attack. The Supreme Court is considering
challenges to two marriage laws, and hopefully the judges will stand up
for marriage as we have known it since the dawn of time.

Whatever the Court’s decision in June, Heritage will redouble its
efforts to restore a culture of marriage in this country, particularly
for the most vulnerable. We know that children born and raised outside
marriage are five times more likely to experience poverty. Marriage
precedes government, and government policy will either witness to the
truth or tell a lie about this fundamental institution.

The last point I want to make is about the energy sector and the
federal government’s attempt to micromanage it. Never has there been so
much promise—or so many hurdles—to exploring and developing the nation’s
natural resources. Energy production on private and state lands is
thriving, while production on federal lands has slowed or is
nonexistent, because large swaths of land and water are completely off
limits.

Congress and the federal government need to open access to America’s
resources on federal lands and ultimately transition the permitting and
regulatory process to the state regulators where that energy lies. This
is one of the keys to getting our economy going again.

I promise you that Heritage will not let up on these and many other
issues in the years to come. All of us here will put our shoulder to the
wheel to restore American society to what it once was. This is my
guarantee to you on my first day.

In other Heritage Foundation news, the think tank recently unveiled architectural design plans for three properties it acquired through affiliates during the first half of 2012 near its Capitol Hill headquarters. More details can be found here.

The Heritage Foundation was recently ranked as the 18th best think tank in the world by the University of Pennsylvania annual think tank rankings. It was ranked as the 9th best think tank in the US.

The foundation’s board of directors voted to name her as the
organization’s new president, subject to the conclusion of contract
negotiations, according to two board members.

If they can agree on terms, Ms. Slaughter would replace Steve Coll,
whose five-year tenure at the foundation is soon ending. Last month Mr.
Coll was named the new dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Ms. Slaughter, who is also a board member, declined comment, writing
in an email that nothing has yet been decided. Mr. Coll also declined to
comment on the selection process because of the confidential nature of
the search.

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch post on Steve Coll stepping down from NAF.

Ms. Slaughter rejoined NAF's Board of Directors in 2011 after at stint as Director of Policy Planning at the US State Department.

How much will she make in her new role? According to the latest publicly available tax records, Steve Coll received a base salary of $320,815 in 2011.

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Think Tank Watch is a one-stop-shop for learning and thinking about think tanks. It covers domestic and global think tank news, gossip, personnel, reports, studies, and pretty much anything else related to think tanks. Think Tank Watch can be found cruising the mean streets of "Think Tank Row" and beyond, attending scores of think tank events each year. Since its founding in 2012, Think Tank Watch has become the #1 source of think tank news and gossip in the world. Questions, comments, and tips can be sent to:
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